Home, sweet home looked pretty good last night, after a 12 hour return trip from Kentucky. But the sticky air that greeted us felt terrible, much muggier and hotter than what we’d experienced during our short sojourn down south.
Apparently the top notch workmanship on display throughout the restored Shaker buildings, their furniture, and other products extends into the realm of climate control, too. Either that or God blessed our anniversary weekend with better-than-expected weather. Whatever the case, our two days exploring every path, visiting every building and museum, following our tour guides, asking questions of the craftsmen, and enjoying the restaurant were delightful.
The Shakers were a sect that considered the Bible their sacred text, but didn’t believe Jesus was God until later in his life. Other beliefs included work as worship in daily life, efficiency and functionality in daily life, and ecstatic Sunday worship. To read more about their beliefs and a fairly complete history here.
My favorite building at Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill was the Meeting House, a 64 foot long structure with no supporting pillars in the center of the room – very important for that ecstatic Sunday morning worship – and the guide took us into the attic so we could see how the beams were constructed to accomplish this feat. I nodded knowingly during the explanation, but haven’t got a clue about what she was saying. But her dress was pretty.
The construction, however, is not what made this my favorite building. The neat rows of pegs made this my favorite building. Don’t get me wrong. Every wall of every room in every Shaker buildings has a row of pegs. (One guide says the combined total of pegs in the village was 30,000.) Not only that, but every candle rack on every wall of every room in every Shaker building has three equally spaced holes so the height of the stands are adjustable. Talk about function, efficiency and order!
But the Meeting House had them all beat. Because every wall in that huge place had three – count ‘em – three rows of pegs marching around the room. I tell you, it calmed the teeny-tiny OCD portion of my brain to see those perfectly straight rows of perfectly straight pegs as far as the eye can see. If it weren’t for the Shakers’ unbiblical view of Christ, their vow of celibacy and the fact that the sect is down 3 members living in Sabbathday Lake, Maine – those pegs might have hooked me in but good. All I can say is it’s a good thing the OCD detective Adrian Monk never visited the Shakers.
He’da been a gonner for sure.
